The following abbreviations are herewith defined, at least some of which are referred to within the following description about at least the prior art and/or the present invention.    BSC Base Station Controller    CDMA Code Division Multiple Access    CN Core Network    CPU Central Processing Unit    EPC Evolved Packet Core    ERAB EUTRAN Radio Access Bearers    GSM Global System for Mobile Communications    LTE Long Term Evolution    PLM Procedure Latency Monitor    PRB Physical Resource Block    QoS Quality of Service    RAN Radio Access Network    RNC Radio Network Controller    RRC Radio Resource Control    tPLM Procedure Latency Mean time    UE User Equipment    WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
In a wireless telecommunication system, admission control (capacity management) is a function implemented in the node (e.g., eNodeB, BSC, RNC) that manages a number of UE sessions. Admission control is needed to handle new, ongoing and incoming UE connections due to e.g. handover or roaming or establishment of connections, and to guarantee that admitted UEs are served according to their requested Quality of Service (QoS). In addition, admission control is needed when the offered load is much higher than the node's engineered capacity. For example, when the node (e.g., eNodeB, BSC, RNC) encounters a situation with high load, the node's admission control mechanism has the responsibility to throttle (e.g., reduce) the load so it remains within the node's engineered capacity. This is valid for ongoing, new and incoming UE connections due to e.g. handover.
For example, in LTE the eNodeB's admission control mechanism uses both hard limits (e.g., the number of licenses in use) and dynamic limits (e.g., the utilization ratio of the PRB resources). Basically, the eNodeB is configured to implement its own utilization measure for each internal resource that is a potential bottleneck. And, during the eNodeB operation a different type of traffic pattern will create its own particular bottlenecks. Thus, when designing and programming or configuring the eNodeB it is difficult to predict which internal resources that will run out due to high traffic load and which internal resources that need to be monitored. The eNodeB's internal resources may be for example:                Number of connected users        Number of bearers per user (signaling and data)        CPU utilization        Signal buffer sizes        
Accordingly, there is and has been a need for enhancing the traditional node (e.g., eNodeB, BSC, RNC) to address these shortcomings and other shortcomings to improve at least the admission control function to handle new, ongoing and incoming UE connections. This need and other needs are satisfied by the exemplary embodiments of the present invention.